How to Stop My Dog Jumping Up to Greet People

You've surely had this happen — walking calmly down the street when suddenly a dog jumps up on you to greet you, play, or get your attention. If the street is dry and the dog clean, it's usually not a big deal, but what happens if it's been raining or the ground is dirty? The dog will end up covering us in mud, dirt or water, with no intention of doing so.

Those of us with a dog don't mind these acts, but plenty of people without a dog get quite annoyed if our dog jumps up on them to greet them and gets them dirty or scares them.

Stopping my dog jumping up on people to greet them, or to play, is genuinely simple. We need to be patient and consistent, and before long we'll see our work paying off and our dog stopping this behaviour. Let's look at what we need to do, step by step.

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How to Stop My Dog Jumping Up: Why Do They Do It?

Dogs jump on people for several reasons, though the most common of all is greeting. Plenty of dogs get excessively happy seeing their humans or people they know, and to greet them, run towards them and jump on them. This is a healthy, fun trait, but the truth is it can sometimes be annoying.

Another reason a dog jumps on people or on us is excess energy — except for puppies, elderly dogs and unwell dogs… every other dog needs to exercise daily, burn off their energy and feel fulfilled in a way.

If a dog doesn't release their energy, they may start showing strange behaviours such as running around the house uncontrollably or jumping on people. If this is the reason, it'll be enough to start healthier routines, consisting of more walks and more outdoor exercise.

Playing, or looking for play, is another reason a dog jumps on people, whether they know them or not. There are very playful dogs who jump on anyone, and some people can feel bothered or scared.

Lastly, there's intimidation — if a dog is in protective mode and a person enters their territory (their home), they may jump on them, though not with good intentions. In this case we need to be quick to prevent a bite or something worse.

How to Stop My Dog Jumping on People

The first thing we need to do to stop our dog jumping on people is teach them not to jump even on us. This is actually very simple to do — we'll just need patience and to use positive reinforcement to train the dog.

If our dog is a puppy, it'll be far simpler to teach them, though if they're an adult it won't be much harder either. The exercise for stopping the dog jumping on us or on other people involves scolding them when they do it.

When the dog jumps on us, we need to say, in a loud, firm voice, "No!" followed by their name. If they keep jumping, we need to turn around (facing away from them) and ignore them entirely. When a dog jumps on us, they're seeking attention — ignoring them is the best way to help them understand that jumping won't get our attention.

We should do the same when the dog jumps on another person — we need to scold them. We should never hit them, though we can use a "touch", which involves simulating a small nip on their flank (as Cesar Millan, the dog whisperer, does).

As you can see, the technique is very simple — we simply need to help the dog understand that jumping on people or on us isn't okay. They won't get attention for doing it, nor any kind of praise or reward.

Even so, for our dog to know what's right from what's wrong, we do need to pamper them and give them rewards when they do things right, for example peeing outside the house, sitting on our command and so on…

How to Stop My Dog Jumping on Me

Exactly the same way we do with others — we need to ignore them when they jump on us. The first time we need to scold them; if they keep doing it… ignore them. It's very simple, and before long it'll give very positive results.

Even so, we won't make any progress with their training if, for example, we scold them when they jump on other people but let them jump on us.

Look into why your dog jumps on you — if it's excess energy (then you need to increase their daily exercise), if it's to greet you or play (then put the advice above into practice), or if it's out of protectiveness (be very careful if this is the case, since it could be followed by a bite).

The best way to prevent this kind of behaviour is properly training our dog from puppyhood, but if we haven't done this, or it wasn't possible because we adopted them as an adult, this simple advice will let you change their behaviour within just a few weeks.

Conclusions

A dog jumping on you or on other people while playing isn't actually anything bad, but we need to understand dogs aren't always clean, and plenty of people can find this behaviour annoying.

By applying the advice we've given, we can eliminate this behaviour within a few weeks — we simply need to be persistent and very patient.

Once our dog has learned the lesson and stopped jumping on people, we need to stay firm and keep showing them it's not okay if they do it again in future (something they'll surely do to see whether they can get away with it or not — they always love putting us to the test).